what a way to wake up
by ArmySFC
Summary: Why was Chuck able to use the intersect and nobody else could? Here's my take on why but I go on from there. Keep in mind I write AU and this one is just that. Some scenes are taken from canon but it's not really close.
1. Chapter 1

**AN:** It's been a while since I last posted anything to this site because I was deployed to Afghanistan for 23 months and didn't have time to write. I've seen a lot of new stories come up over the last few months and most of them I liked. I do find it strange that quite a few were AU, and for those of you that have read my stuff before, it fits right in with the story I have planned. The one question they never explained was, what allowed Chuck to handle the intersect when no one else could? TPTB said they would explain it in season 5 but all we got was a bad intersect with a virus, a bigger douche bag Morgan and a brain fried Sarah, not much of an explanation there. Here's my take on what could have been the reason in a completely different and very far out way. Keep in mind, "In a universe as vast as this anything is possible."

Chapter One: How it all began.

A man and a woman stood next to a large glass wall overlooking the thousands of people working below. All the workers had several computer screens in front of them, displaying numerous people going about their everyday lives. On the wall across from the couple was a large screen displaying the status of the individual screens from the room below. Every screen had a dot that corresponded to its current condition, green for normal, yellow for pending trouble and red for something went wrong and needed to be fixed. Its current state was solid green, indicating all was well across every dimension. Suddenly, a red dot appeared followed by another in a different location. The couple calmly went into action, each one took a different dot and enlarged it so they could determine what the problem is.

Both screens showed the same thing, a young white male in his mid-twenties was on the ground in a broken twisted mess. The thigh of his left leg was bent at an odd angle, and lower part of his leg was bent in the opposite direction. His left arm was in similar shape bent at weird angle where it should not be. He had blood running out of the corner of his mouth and blood was coming from the large cut on his scalp just below his hair line. The woman touched a pin on her lapel and called into it, "tech 1289465, was the demise of your charge foreseen or is the incident the cause of the alarm?"

"Madam Elder, this event was not foreseen, it was his destiny to attempt to save his world from certain destruction at the hands of its own people. Based on our data he will cease to function in the next 15 minutes using his time. What was foreseen was his demise in how it would have played out. His brain would not have been able to handle what was required of it and he would have died. Sol 3 in this dimension will cease to exist in 10.24 years due to an asteroid strike. Nothing can be done to stop it."

"Thank you tech 1289465" replied the woman. Turning to the man, she notes he's in a state of deep thought but makes the decision to inform him of the situation. He nods his head letting her know he's heard what she had to say and continues his thought process. His tech told him the exact same thing just moments before with one exception, this Sol 3 was not supposed to end at the same time as the other, its end would not come for several billion years. This Sol 3 was going to play a huge part in the advancement of its dimension and the protection of all its free beings.

"Madam Elder", the man began, "The Sol 3 I was looking at is destined for great things and must be preserved at all costs. The man's life is fading as we speak and time is critical. He has suffered major internal injuries, a severely broken left arm and leg, his ribs are also damaged as is his neck. At this time we cannot tell if paralysis has occurred, what is your decision?"

"Over the millions of years we have been doing this, fixing broken time lines is one of the hardest things I have to make a decision on," she said and drew in a deep cleansing breath. "I have made my decision Number 1. Assemble Logan's team and get them to the dimension. Send our top Doc with him to prevent this man from dying until it is all explained to him. If he chooses to accept this mission he will return here to be re-bodied, if not have the Doc euthanize him and let the new time line play out."

"As you wish Madam Elder." The man turned away from her to call Logan and inform him to gather his team and meet him in the dimension transport room with the Doc ASAP. Moments later Logan and his team were on their way.

 **Stanford, California January, 2002**

Chuck Bartowski was heading from his dorm to his first class of day in the manner he normally did, head phones on and playing a video game as he walked along the sidewalk. He was so completely engrossed in his game that he neglected to look at the street as he stepped off the curb. All Chuck would remember from this would be a blinding flash of white then nothing at all.

Within seconds of the car hitting Chuck and throwing him several feet in the air, leaving a broken twisted mess on the pavement, people started screaming and calling for help. Minutes later two men and five women came rushing forward to assist Chuck.

"Doc how bad is it?" questioned the taller of the 2 men.

"It's bad Logan, I can keep him alive until we get back buts that's it. We have to get him to the hospital soon." As he was saying this he was giving Chuck an injection of some kind. "Our biggest problem will getting him to wake up so we can talk to him and see what he decides. What I can tell you is he will never have use or feeling below his neck."

"We better move back, it looks like the healers have arrived. We will ask where he is being taken and follow him there."

It took the EMT's several minutes to prepare Chuck for his trip to the Stanford University Medical Trauma Center.

Ellie and Devon arrived several hours after chuck had entered surgery and were in the waiting room hoping for the best. Ellie's eyes were swollen and red from the crying she had been doing for the last few hours. Her little brother was in surgery fighting for his life and at the moment it was not looking good for him. She reached over and pulled Devon closer and sobbed quietly into his chest. Eight hours later the Doctor came out and addressed them.

"Right now he's stable and holding his own. He suffered major trauma to his abdomen that resulted in the removal of his spleen. His left arm and leg were broken in several places and needed quite a bit of work to repair. He had large lacerations on his head and a severe concussion. Our major concern right now is the damage he suffered to his neck. His spinal cord was damaged. Based on some initial tests he will be paralyzed from the neck down, I'm sorry."

Ellie was crying hysterically now and nothing she was saying made any sense. Devon just held her tighter and thanked the Doctor. It would take Ellie several months before she could accept what had happened to Chuck.

 **March 2002 SUMTC**

"I'm so glad you're finally coherent enough to enjoy my company," Ellie said. She was sitting in a chair next to Chuck's bed holding his hand. "Have the Doctors said anything to you about your tests?"

"Yeah they did," Chuck replied as a tear slowly made its way down his scarred cheek. "The last MRI's just confirmed what the earlier ones showed and all my broken bones are healing nicely. This is as good as it's gonna get for me. On the bright side I can get a chair that operates by using a blow tube."

Ellie could barely control her tears. Her baby brother who she raised almost entirely on her own would be confined to a wheel chair or bed for the rest of his life. She cried for all his dreams he would ever see, the kids he would never have and life he looked forward to after graduation. She paused for a minute before she spoke again. "You're going to come live with me in the apartment. It's on the first floor so we won't have to build any ramps or modify the inside any."

Relief could been seen on chucks face before he began to Talk, "Thanks El, that means the world to me. I just don't want to be a burden on you and Devon."

"You could never be a burden to me, you're the only family I have left." They chatted for a few hours before Ellie had to leave for her shift at the hospital. As she was leaving she ran into a couple of men sitting on some chairs in the hall outside of Chuck's room. The younger of the two men stood up and moved towards her with his hand held out in greeting.

"Ellie Bartowski?" he questioned in a voice that made Ellie's heart skip a beat or two at the sound of his voice. It was soft and seemed to carry a melody as he spoke. _Damn he's gorgeous thought Ellie._

She looked and the man standing in front of her and nodded. He was easily as tall as Chuck but that's where the similarities ended. His hair was sandy blonde, almost the color of straw, his eyes were ice blue and his facial features suggested Scandinavian decent. From the neck down he was the perfect example of a man in peak physical condition. His chest was large and the muscles in is arms rippled every time he moved them. His torso tapered down to his waist in the classic V shape.

"My names Logan and this is Doc. We've seen Chuck around campus and wanted to stop by and see how he is doing would that be alright? We don't hear a lot back at school."

"I think he would like the company. I'd like to save him any un-necessary pain as much as I can. His spinal cord was damaged when he was hit and he's paralyzed from the neck down. Please don't bring it up if you can help it."

"I don't think that will be a problem Ellie, and thanks. Come on Doc."

When they entered the room they found Chuck propped up in the bed watching TV.

"Hey Chuck can we talk to you for a few minutes?" asked Doc. They could tell by the dried tear marks on his cheeks he had been crying.

"I'm sorry but do I know you?" queried Chuck.

"I'm Logan and this is Doc," answered the blonde haired man. "I have something you need to hear and I'd rather it stay between us. Do you mind if I close the door?"

"Sure go ahead, but trust me there isn't anything you can say that I haven't heard before."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that Chuck. I'm sure you've heard of Stephen Hawking and his theory of multiple universes?"

"Of course I have," chuck answered in a snarky tone, "I'd get my nerd card revoked if I hadn't. But what difference does that make? It's never been proven."

"While it's never been proven _here_ , it is indeed true. We would prefer if this stayed between us, but if you feel the need to tell someone feel free. They'll just think it's a dream of a desperate man that wants to walk again." Chuck had to bite back the retort he had on the tip of his tongue so he settled for a slight nod of his head.

"My team and I were sent here to offer you a proposition and a chance to walk again and possibly be better than before. Would you like to hear it?"

"Sure, why not. I don't have anything to lose do I?"

"Not really. The place where I come from is the center of the dimensional universe, all dimensions intersect, for a lack of better terms, there. There is a group of elders assigned to watch over and maintain each dimension in its intended state. Once every million years or so something happens to disrupt that balance. On the day you got hit, in another dimension, a different Chuck was hit the same as you," Logan pauses for a few seconds to see if Chuck has any questions.

"In that dimension the decision was made to let him die." As he finished up that statement he could see Chuck's face start to tighten so he held up a hand to cut him off. "The elders have to make some tough decisions but they never make them without all the facts. That Chuck's world will end in a year or so when a giant asteroid crashes into it. No one will survive. They made the choice to save you, so you can fulfill your destiny. While I can't tell you what it is, I can tell you it will be a wild ride."

"Say I believe you," Chuck said in a questioning tone. "How do you plan to make it happen? It's not like I can go anywhere."

"That's the best part, you don't have to go anywhere. All I need to do is take a few DNA samples and in a few weeks we can fix you right up, you'll never feel or notice a thing. I need to tell you a few things first, when this is over I will be training you on a multitude of things, hand to hand combat, marksmanship and several other things you will need to complete your destiny. In fact I'm gonna recommend a stint in one of your armed services."

"Anyone but the Army, there's not a lot of them but those bastards are crazy as hell."

"Perfect, the Army it is then," Logan said with a laugh. "I'll be coming around every day to chat with you and fill you in more as we go along. The second reason is to get to know Ellie better. You're gonna need some help to complete you destiny so I'll be around a lot. The more I'm around now the easier it will be in the future."

"You had me worried there for a minute, I thought you were planning to hit on my sister. She has a boyfriend right now so that wouldn't be cool."

"No problems Chuck, just let Doc take a couple samples and we'll be on our way for today." Doc pulled some swabs out of his jacket pocket, got the samples and left. Logan followed right behind him. "Doc, don't forget what the Elders said. You need a bit of a tweak so his brain doesn't explode with what's to come." The Doc merely nodded.

True to his word Logan came by his room every day for several hours, most days running into Ellie and sometimes Devon. On one occasion he had the displeasure of meeting one Morgan Grimes. He babbled on incessantly about a whole bunch of nothing, even bragging that he worked at the Buymore because it fell in line with his mad work avoidance skills as he called it. Logan's response to that statement was quite shocking to both Chuck and Ellie, "Morgan, you are nothing but a parasite and blight on the human race. Why don't you get them to fire your sorry ass, go on welfare and the whole nine yards instead of stealing from the company that gave you a chance to better yourself? You make me physically sick." After finishing his tirade he said good bye to Chuck and Ellie and left the room saying he would be back around the same time tomorrow.

"Can you believe the nerve of that guy? Talking to me like that? What is his problem?" Morgan asked.

"I'm sorry Morgan I'm with Logan on this one," stated Ellie. "It's late and I have an early day tomorrow so I have to go. I'll be back tomorrow around the same time, ok?"

"Sure thing El, I look forward to seeing you every day. I love and thanks for everything."

"I love you too Chuck, see you tomorrow."

Within minutes of Ellie's leaving Chuck drifted off to sleep. Two men entered the room silently and approached his bed. Doc gave him another injection ensuring he would stay asleep until morning. Once that was completed he placed a small object on his forehead and waited until the light on it turned blue and removed it. Doc nodded to Logan and they vanished from the room.

 **The HUB several hours later**

Chuck slowly began to wake up and for the first time in several months he felt well rested. Like he did every morning since his accident he tried to stretch, only this time it was different. He felt his arms and legs move slightly and was accompanied by a tremendous amount of pain. His movement stopped and his eyes flew open. Standing above him was a gorgeous woman with jet black hair and deep green eyes.

"Where the heck am I," he screamed. "And what have you done to me?"

"Chuck, you need to relax so I can finish up my work. Names Karen by the way. Let me call Logan so he can explain everything to you. Here this should help," and she gave him a shot of pain killers. The pain he was feeling dropped to manageable level. Several minutes later Logan and Doc came strolling in. Chuck was really starting to freak out, one thing he knew for sure was he wasn't in the same hospital, in fact he didn't appear to be in any hospital at all.

"I told you back there you didn't give him enough juice, but did ya listen, nope."

"Welcome back to the land of the living and mobile. Chuck, how's it feel?" asked Doc.

"I'm in a shitload of pain every time I try to move, but the shot helped. I still want to know what's going on."

"Sorry about that Chuck," answered Doc. "I didn't give enough sedatives to this body and you woke up before we could finish getting you ready to go back. Care to continue Logan?"

"It's a long story but I'll tell you the short version and over time fill in the blanks so don't interrupt ok?" began Logan. "The body you currently reside in is an exact clone of your body back in the hospital at Stanford. We had to match this body to that one so we had to break and repair each bone exactly the same as that one. Everything will now match the one back there including the scars. Karen was just about to start putting on the casts to allow the healing process to finish. Once she's done with that, we'll zip you back and switch you out for the husk laying in your bed."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on a minute there, you're just gonna kill my other body? Just like that?" exclaimed Chuck. "I don't care what you call it. That's still me down there you are planning to kill!"

"Calm down Chuck," said Doc. "That body is already dead. There is no higher brain function at all. You're a computer guy right?" Chucks answer was a small nod. "After you fell asleep Logan and I went into your room and performed what you would call a cut and paste on your brain. We removed everything in your brain that was every learned by you and stored it in a special device we have, similar to the external hard drives you are familiar with. Once we returned here we simply reversed the process. Everything that made that body Chuck Bartowski is right here, you. Answer me this, except for the pain, do you feel any different? Are your memories still there?"

"Except for the pain everything feels the same. I remember Ellie, Devon, Morgan all my classes and professors as well," answered Chuck.

"Good. I'm going to give you a shot to knock you out so Karen can finish up with your casts and we can get you back home where you belong," stated Doc.

"Sounds good to me Doc, since I didn't say it before thanks and I believe you now."

When Chuck woke up again sometime later he was back in his room as if he had never left. Just to make sure he didn't dream the events of a few hours ago he tried lifting his arm a bit and sure enough it did. Tears of happiness streamed down his face and rolled off his chin soaking the sheets pulled up around him. At that moment he decided not to tell the staff anything, he would wait until Ellie arrived and surprise his sister.

Ellie came into chucks room the same time she usually did and plopped down in the chair beside his bed.

"How are you doing today Chuck?" she asked.

"Better than I was for the last few months that's for sure. The reason I feel so good is a secret so you'll have to bend down and close your eyes so I can whisper it in your ear ok?"

"Sure Chuck, whatever makes you happy." Ellie put her ear next to Chuck's mouth and closed her eyes. What happened next Ellie would remember for the rest of her life, Chuck's whispering surprise in her ear and the tickling sensation on her ribs. Her eyes flew open as she looked down at her ribs to see Chuck's fingers gently resting there. She looked at his face to see the tears running down his face and the smile that had been missing for so long firmly planted on his face. All Chuck could do was nod his head as the tears fell freely from Ellie's eyes and ran down her face. Ellie wrapped her arms around him in a firm but gentle hug mumbling thank God over and over again into his neck. Unknown to crying and hugging siblings, one of the leads on Chuck's heart monitor had come lose sending an alert to the nurses station that indicated Chuck had flat lined. Within seconds the Code Blue was sounded sending the nurses and doctors on duty into the room, crash carts at the ready, only to be stopped dead in their track by the sight of Chuck and Ellie hugging and crying on the bed Chuck's arms securely wrapped around his sister.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN:** I have a few beliefs that I use when writing that I try to follow. The first is when writing an AU story is make it AU. Therefore I generally don't use much from canon except the characters. The second is I believe the world changes the man not the man changes the world. What I mean is a single event in the characters life will change his outlook on life and how he reacts to the things in it. Spiderman is a good example of what I mean, he let the guy go that robbed the store, who then in turn kills his uncle and Spiderman the hero is born. Had he stopped the guy and he wouldn't have been around to kill his uncle there would have a different result. With the man changes the world, the world is changed so the character will fit into it. My example would be, using Spiderman again is his uncle lives but someone for no reason comes up to him and says, with those powers you should go stop bad guys. In this story I had to use a little of both or I couldn't make it work.

 **Chapter 2**

The Doctors gave Chuck and Ellie a few minutes alone together before the lead doctor spoke to the Bartowskis, "Ellie could you please step out of the room for a few minutes so we can examine Chuck? I also want to send him for x-rays and a new MRI. He should be back in his room in a few hours."

"No problem Doctor, it will give me chance to leave and get something to eat," Ellie said as she gave one last hug. "Chuck I'll be back in a couple of hours," stated Ellie as she made her way out of Chuck's room.

A little over three hours later Chuck was wheeled into his room where he found his sister already waiting for him. She immediately went over to him and gave him another hug. Ellie never believed in miracles until her brother suddenly and mysteriously got better. "Chuck have the doctors said anything to you yet to explain how you got better?"

"They don't have any answers yet and the way the doctors sounded they probably never will," sighed Chuck. "Everyone is calling it a medical improbability and saying that there is no medical reason for my recovery. They did tell me they won't have the MRI results until sometime tomorrow so it's still a waiting game."

"I don't care if it takes several days for them to get the results because all I care about is that you got better and can come home soon," Ellie said with tear filled eyes.

"I won't be coming home that soon El," said Chuck with a laugh. "The doctors said I would have to go into rehab for a while. Most of my muscles are in bad shape from lack of use. They explained my body is in almost the same shape as a 4 month old child. If I rehab hard they are very optimistic about my chances to lead a normal life once I get out."

"I can get Devon to set up an exercise program for after your get home if you want. He said he would be glad to help."

"I hope what I'm going to say doesn't offend you or Devon, but I think I'm going to ask Logan to help me out. I know Devon is in great shape but you've seen Logan and he's built like a brick shit house plus we've gotten to be friends and he won't make stupid comments about me like Devon used to and I think he may know a thing or two about working out."

"He is a specimen isn't he? Devon and I had a fight about him one time, because, you know Devon and his ego," Ellie said with a sigh, "He just can't accept that someone may be better built than him. I'm seriously questioning why I am still with him."

Chuck looked over Ellie's shoulder and spoke, "Speak of the devil and he shall appear."

"I'm sorry Chuck did I miss something? Holy shit dude, you moved your arms," Logan exclaimed.

"I woke up this morning and tried to stretch like I did every day and my arms and legs moved," Chuck explained with a knowing smile. "The docs poked and prodded me most of the day and still don't have a clue, not that I'm complaining mind you." Ellie took this break to jump into the conversation.

"He's going to need plenty of rehab before he can come home and we were wondering if you could set him up with a training program to follow after he gets out of rehab."

"Ahhh, so that's what I heard when I walked in. I'd be glad to help Chuck out. In fact I have a full gym and pool at my house so he can stay with us until he's up to being on his own, but that's up to you and him. If not we can come get him every day and bring him back when we finish."

"Sorry Logan but I'm confused," began Ellie, "who are the 'we' you're talking about?"

"That's my fault you guys, Chuck and I have been getting along so well I forgot we didn't talk too much at school." Logan paused for a few minutes to figure out a way to explain his current living conditions to the Bartowskis. "I live with five girls at the moment and I think they can be very helpful in getting Chuck back on track. One's a doctor, one's a physical therapist and one specializes in massages. The other two are physical trainers so I think we have it covered."

"That clinches it for me," stated Chuck. _How the hell can he live with five girls, just Ellie drives Devon crazy some days?_

"If it's ok with Chuck I'm fine with it. A massage after he finishes therapy should help a great deal," stated Ellie.

"I have something to run by you guys and I want you to take some time and think it over," Logan began, "my house is huge and has a few extra rooms. Instead of spending money on rehab why doesn't Chuck come to my place? He can get the same care he would in rehab plus one on one exercise with the therapist. The other advantage is instead of the limited number of therapy sessions he'd get in a hospital, with us he would get as many as he could handle. Plus you and Devon can stay with us as well."

"El, I like that idea better than going to a rehab hospital, plus you guys could come and stay whenever you wanted." answered Chuck.

"Forgive me if I put my sister slash doctor hat on for a few minutes but I don't know anything about these girls. I would like to at least meet them before we commit to anything," Ellie said with conviction while staring hard into Logan's eyes. "When can we meet them? And no offense I'd like to see their qualifications."

"They can be here in a few minutes and they can send in the references with me when I come back tomorrow. They went to a coffee shop just around the corner from the hospital. Let them give me a call." Logan pulled out his phone and made the call. "Karen, Ellie wants to meet you and the girls. He's in room 612 get here as soon as you can…five minutes…ok see you then, love you, bye."

About ten minutes later five of the most beautiful girls Chuck had ever laid eyes on walked into his room and moved to stand right beside Logan. Even Ellie did a double take at the girls, not because of their beauty, but because they looked almost identical to each other. The only real difference were the hair and eyes. They were all at least five feet eleven inches tall and had bodies on them would rival even the most popular swimsuit models. The first girl to walk in had tuxedo black hair and piercing green eyes. The second had platinum blonde hair and ice blue eyes. She was followed in by a brunette with blue eyes. Next came an auburn haired girl with green eyes and finally a dirty blonde with hazel eyes. Ellie reached over and closed Chuck's mouth for him because he seemed incapable of doing anything else but stare at the moment. Each women's hair was straight with bangs cut straight across even with their eyebrows and it went down almost to their waist where it was also cut straight across.

"Ladies, I'd like to introduce you to my friend and his sister, Chuck and Ellie. Guys these are my girls, Karen has the black hair and she's the doctor, the light blonde is Claire and she's the physical therapist, the brunette is Olivia and her specialty is massage therapy. The auburn haired girl is Riley and the dirty blonde is Nicole they are the physical training experts. Feel free to ask them any questions you want."

Ellie began her questioning with Karen and slowly made her way around the room to each one of the girls. While this was going on Chuck and Logan just stayed out of it and talked quietly to themselves. Well over an hour later the discussion ended with Ellie totally satisfied that her brother was going to be in good hands but still wanted to see the paperwork from Logan. The group noticed how late it was getting and decided leave for the day and meet up closer to the day Chuck would be released from the hospital. Everyone wished Chuck a good night and left.

The Doctors wanted Chuck to stay in the hospital until he was at least strong enough to get into a wheel chair with minor assistance from someone else. As hard as it was for Cuck and Ellie to believe, it only took a few weeks before he was moved to Logan's house to continue with his rehab. When they arrived at Logan's house they got another big surprise as they pulled into the drive just off the main road. Chuck couldn't believe that Logan actually called the mansion in front of him a house. When Chuck started to question him about the house Logan gave him a small shake of his head subtly telling him to wait until later. They spent the remainder of the day getting Chuck settled in his room and giving Ellie a tour of the house. When Ellie was done with the tour she stayed around for a short while before heading back home.

"Now that Ellie's gone care to explain all of this?" Chuck questioned while spreading his arms wide apart to indicate the house.

"When we first met I told you a little about myself and that great things were expected from you in the future and you saw the HUB when we gave you your new body," Logan paused to put things together in his mind before continuing on. "Time does not exist in the HUB like it does anywhere else. An Elder is assigned to monitor a certain number of dimensions and the time lines in each one. They have the knowledge of each one and know the end state of each. When something happens to change a time line or put it at risk, a team is sent in to fix the problem."

"I'm following so far but it still doesn't make any sense to me," Chuck said.

"I'm going to bring Einstein back up again. He believed there is no true division between past, present and future, there is rather a single existence and he was right. From the HUB the past, present and future of each dimension and the worlds in it can be viewed. This allows the Elders know what's supposed to happen and when. You weren't supposed to be hit that day Chuck, some anomaly caused you to be at that exact point a few seconds earlier or later then in the original time line. Before you ask Chuck we don't know what caused the event to happen."

"If I hadn't been fixed up by you guys and seen the HUB I would think you were out of your mind, but after all I've seen so far I believe you. So what's next for me other than the rehab?" questioned Chuck.

"That my friend is a good question. Right now your time line is a cluster fuck and I'm working on a way to fix as much as I can. I can't tell you what was supposed to happen, what I can do is guide you and give you several options to choose from and hope you pick the one that will get you closer to where you were supposed to end up," explained Logan.

"I'll take your word for it and hope we can get me back on the right track. One question, will I know if I make the right choice or not? Like will there be some kind of sign or something?" asked Chuck.

"The simple answer is no. You don't know what the future held for you before, so there is no way of knowing what your choices will result in. You'll have to find out just like everyone else."

"Logan, Thanks for everything you guys are doing for me. Can I ask you a few questions that are bugging me?"

"Ask away Chuck."

"If you guys just got here, how do you have this mansion and everything thing that goes with it?"

"That's an easy one. Our job is to fix or repair broken timelines, in order to do that we have to have things in place if the need arises. You world for reasons we can't explain leads all the others by a large margin in having shit go wrong in it so we plan ahead. Each world, for lack of a better term, gets visited from time to time by us where we set up things we may need. We can't just pop in and go to work now can we?" this got a small Chuckle out of Chuck. "This mansion as you call it was built by me back in the thirties and remodeled over time. I made investments over the years so if the need ever arose we would have it."

"I call bullshit on that one Logan, you're not even 25 yet so stop lying to me ok? I thought you were going to be straight with me," Chuck said with anger in his voice.

"You picked up on that did you, nice job Chuck," Chuck could hear the sarcasm in Logan's voice as he spoke. "First off I am being straight with you, I always have been. I noticed you never questioned where or how we got your new body and because it will answer both of your questions at the same time I'll explain it to you. The body I currently reside in will only be functional for about 200 years then it will fail. We can't reproduce like most species do because of an accident in our past so we developed cloning as a way to survive. When we get past midlife we clone a body and transfer or minds into it and discard the old one same as we did for you. While this body may look 25 my existence is older than I can tell you. Does that answer your question?"

"Yeah it does. I noticed all the girls look the same except for the hair and eyes, do all the men look like you?"

"Hell no," Logan said while holding in a laugh, "we all look different same as the women. This may be hard for you to understand or even approve of. I fell in love with five different humans during my trips here and since I'm a romantic at heart I couldn't give any of them up and they didn't want to leave me. We diced and spliced the DNA of all 5 women and this is the body that came from it. They all agreed with the results because part of each of them would carry on."

"How the hell do you handle 5 women? I could barely handle the one I had?" asked an amazed Chuck.

"We'll table that for a later date. That's all the questions for now, ok." Chuck gave a small nod of his head in acknowledgement. "Here's my first piece of advice and it would be wise for you to heed it, train hard, harder than you ever thought possible for you. Learn as many forms of martial arts as you can and excel in them. Pay close attention to your trainers and perfect everything they show you. If you feel like giving up, don't, push forward even when you can't push any more. Set goals for yourself and when you reach them, set new higher ones. This is your second shot at life Chuck don't waste it. Once you moving better contact your professors and see if you can complete your degree online. One last thing, if you try and fail, try again. If you don't try you'll never succeed. Good night Chuck and get some rest, your rehab starts in the morning," and Logan turned and left the room.

Chucks rehab started the next day and made steady progress over time. It took Chuck about five months before he was walking again unaided and seven before he could start running. When his rehab started Ellie and Devon came by at least three times a week to visit and check on his progress. After a few weeks Devon no longer came with Ellie and when Chuck questioned her she said they were having a rough patch arising from their hectic work schedules and the amount of time they spent with Chuck, leaving very little time for themselves, so they decided to take a break from each other to sort out their lives.

What Chuck didn't know was how close Logan an Ellie were getting. It wasn't the same love he felt for the five girls but the kind of love you have for a very close friend. They would spend hours talking and hanging out in the pool while Chuck was doing his rehab. It didn't take Ellie long to show an interest in working out so Logan and Nicole began working out with her and showing her several forms of martial arts. At about the six month mark Logan approached Chuck and asked him if though it would be a good idea to clue Ellie in on how he got better. He wanted to do it in part because Ellie was spending a lot of time trying to find out the answers on how Chuck get better when just the day before there was no hope in sight. Chuck was happy as a kid in a candy store about telling his sister everything because he felt bad about lying to her, but Logan talked him into just going over the cloning part and the HUB. Of course Ellie being just like Chuck needed proof so a quick trip to the HUB made her a believer.

After nine months Chuck was well past rehabbing and was deep into his work out routines, gaining muscle mass and increasing his run distances. Chuck and Ellie were both astounded at how fast they had both progressed but more importantly how different Chuck was approaching his life. Chuck gave them a simple and to the point explanation, "When you spend several months in a hospital bed paralyzed from the neck down, your outlook on life changes." He took Ellie's and Logan's advice and finished his degree as soon as he was able to. He couldn't participate in the graduation ceremony but he really didn't care, Ellie was happy and proud of him and that's all that mattered to him.

Another major change that occurred during the time he spent in rehab was Chuck matured mentally. He no longer needed to play video games to kill his time, he either worked out, studied a new language, or studied the latest in electrical engineering, computer programming or worked on computer designs and software. His dream of owning his own company was still in the back of his mind so he used this time to help him get closer to his dream. Logan also started training him on the use of fire arms because he couldn't get into the military due to his injuries. Chuck found he really enjoyed going to the range and shooting at targets. They even went skeet shooting a few times and Chuck had a blast. Even Ellie got into at one point.

 **April 2003**

When Logan felt Chuck was ready to be on his own full time, just past a year from the first time they met, he gave him a few parting gifts for a job well done. The first was a 1967 Shelby GT Super Snake which owns a one-off status. It was powered by a 427 cubic inch V-8 engine lifted directly from a race car called the Ford GT40. The second present he gave Chuck was a 2003 fully loaded Ford F-150 super crew cab with a 5.4 liter V-8. His final gift was a Smith and Wesson 1911A1 .45 caliber hand gun. When Chuck tried to argue Logan shut him down saying, "does it look like I care about money? You worked your ass off to get to where you are today so consider this your graduation present."

When the three friends arrived at the apartment the first thing that popped into Chucks head was, "damn it's small." When they entered the apartment Logan was the first to speak. "Nice place you have here Ellie."

Ellie just snorted and said, "It's a dump, but its home. After living in your place for the last few months it's going to be hard getting used to this place."

"The option for you guys to move into my place is still open. Take a few days and decide. Chuck told me he's still going to come over every day so he can to continue his training and use the pool." Logan then bent down and whispered in Ellie's ear, "Personally I think he just wants to use the pool because the girls only wear the bottoms of their string bikinis." This caused Ellie to blush and nod her head. "So Chuck, what are your plans for a job?"

"That's a tough question right now and before you get mad Ellie just hear me out. I've been out of touch with society for over a year now and I need some time to adjust to it. I was thinking I could go back to the Buy More for a few months to get back in the swing of things. Most of the people I worked with before will be there and it's low stress."

"Chuck," Ellie began, "you made some valid points. I don't care what you do as long as it makes you happy. This last year has been hell on both of us. Just don't get stuck there, ok?"

"Wasn't planning on it Ellie," Chuck responded, "I got my degree and thanks to my professors coming here I was able to get my masters. I'm not going to waste all the time I spent studying, besides I'm just about done with the game I was working on. If that goes well I can get my own office space if I need to. It's going to take some time to get a business started and I can work and write code at the same time."

"Sounds like you have a plan little brother. I'm going to order us some food because there isn't shit in the house to eat." When she was done talking she left the room in search of takeout menus.

"You can also practice your hacking skills," Logan said with wink.

"I'm not a hacker Logan, and what gave you that idea anyway?"

"Whatever you say Piranha." Logan said as he looked Chuck dead in the eyes. Chuck's face paled a bit at that because he knew he had been found out. "Don't worry about it, remember those times you barely out hacked the Great White?" _you_ Chuck mouthed in awe. Logan answered with a wink. "I was thinking that maybe you could you use your skills to track down your mom and dad that's all. Hey El?"

"What," Ellie called from the kitchen.

"Have you guys ever gone past your old house? I used to go by mine every once in a while just to see where I grew up, until they tore it down that is."

"Once we left we never went back. Too many bad memories"

"True, but there were some good time as well," Chuck said "I used to love the story Mom told us about the Frost Queen. You know El, it would be kind of neat to see it again."

"Maybe in a few months, let's get you settled and working before we do that. Dinner should be here soon. I ordered Thai. "

Chuck got his job at Buy More, Big Mike was more than happy to have him back as were his other coworkers. Soon after that Ellie and Chuck decided to take Logan up on his offer to move into his place and they gave up the apartment. Moving out helped Chuck in a really big way. Morgan was still being Morgan which meant he was shoving all his work on Chuck and begging him to get a place together like they planned when they were younger. The last straw for Chuck came when he had a date over for the night and Morgan climbed into the window because he wanted to play a video game.

 _Flash back_

 _Chuck and Mary Jo were sprawled out naked on Chuck's ready to be intimate when Chuck heard the Morgan door open and a gasp come from the window. When Mary Jo heard it she screamed and tried to get under the covers to hide herself. Chuck jumped out of the bed and pulled up his boxers and went to where Morgan was now standing._

" _What the hell Morgan!" he shouted. "Haven't you out grown climbing in my damn window?"_

" _It's our game night Chuck, so I figured I'd come over. I had no idea you were getting freaky in here."_

" _I told you at work I had a date tonight with Mary Jo."_

" _A date yes, but you never mentioned bringing her here for sex," said Morgan trying to defend himself._

" _Just get the hell out of here before I toss you out!"_

 _End flashback_

It took all of Chuck's will power not to strangle Morgan on the spot for ruining his night, but also for costing him a girl he liked.

 **May 2004**

Chuck's idea for a game and new gaming engine turned out to be a huge success, it even won game of the year honors from PC Gaming magazine. Chuck had listened to Logan when he told him to sell it cheap but ask for a percentage of the sales. Chuck did just that by requesting fifteen percent of the profits. When it was all said and done Chuck had a decent amount of money coming in and this allowed him to cut his hours back to just a few days a week, allowing him more time to write games. It had taken him most of last year before he was ready to go see his old house again. The decision made he called Logan. Logan had just finished doing laps when his phone rang. Olivia picked up when she saw the caller ID. "Hey Chuck how's it hanging?"

"Same as always Liv, a little to the right. Is Logan there, if so can I talk to him?"

"He just finished his laps and is heading this way so hold on."

"No problem Liv."

"What's up software king?" asked Logan when he picked up.

"I decided to swing past the old house and wanted to know if you'd mind going with me?"

"I love to, let me get ready and we'll swing by and get you. The girls have been waiting for a long time to see where you grew up and they'd kill me if I left them behind. Where you at?"

"I'm still at work so meet me here."

"Sure thing Chuck we'll be there as fast as we can. See ya in a bit," Logan ended the call and turned to Liv, "Get the other girls. We're off to see Chuck's old house and he needs a lift from work."

"Sure thing Logan. Do you think he'd be upset if we teased him a bit? You know dress sexy and then go up and rub against him?"

"Are you trying to kill him? Do it, when he sees you guys he'll flip like always, but he is getting better. What are you thinking of wearing?"

"That's for us to know and you to find out." Olivia had a shit eating grin on her face as she went to gather up the other girls.

Chuck had clocked out and was hanging around the Nerd Herd desk waiting for Logan to arrive so to pass the time he was talking to Morgan and Lester. While they droned on and on about inane things like what sandwich would you take to a deserted island _I can't believe I used to do that with him_ and lamented the fact that they hadn't had sex in a while, Chuck just nodded his head like he was actually listening. When they got to the girls part Chuck decided it would be a good idea to warn them about who was coming to get him.

"Guys, guy's." When he didn't get an answer Chuck started to get mad and growled out, "will you two just shut up for a second?" This got both of their attentions and they looked at him. "In a few minutes my friend is going to pick me up. If I know him he will be with five of the hottest babes you have ever seen so please, please listen to me. Don't try and flirt with them and under NO circumstances touch them or make rude comments. You hear me."

"I see how it is Chuck," started Lester, "you're not fooling me, you just to keep them all to yourself."

"He's right, we have a right as men to go after any women we want," added Morgan. Chuck just looked at him and sadly thought, _it's your funeral dude._

It wasn't long before Logan got to the store with the girls and they walked in the place like they owned it. The jaws of both the men and women in the store dropped as they made their entrance. Logan was dressed casually in jeans and a skin tight white ribbed tee that showed off all his muscles. The girls were another story. They were each wearing latex mini dresses that hugged their curves like it was painted on. The dresses and shoes matched each girl's hair and they rolled their hips as they made their way to the counter where Chuck was standing. When they reached him Karen and Claire pulled him into a hug and started grinding on him and nibbling on his ear lobe. It took every bit of will power Logan had not to laugh out loud at Chuck's situation.

That's when disaster struck. Morgan walked up to Riley and Lester to Nicole, both started to try flirt with them. All Chuck heard was "remove your hand before I remove it for you," coming from Riley and "what the fuck did you just say" from Nicole. Chuck looked up just in time to see Morgan crash into a display stand and land on his back with blood coming out of his mouth. Riley was straddling his chest and had a knife at his throat. "I asked you to remove your hand you piece of shit and you didn't listen. If you ever touch me again, I'll slit your throat from ear to ear and cut out your tongue. Is that clear?" she hollered out. Not waiting for a reply she wandered over to Chuck. While this was happening, Lester did something to draw the wrath of Nicole, Chuck didn't know what he did but it pissed her off. What he did know was Lester was on the floor screaming holding his arm, and by way his arm looked, it was broken in at least 2 places. Chuck knew nothing he said would matter anyway so the six of them walked out, got in their cars and drove off.

When they finally reached Chucks old house it looked abandoned. "Here it is Logan, I don't think anyone has lived here for a while."

"All the better for us. Ladies how about we go inside and see the place from the inside?"

A chorus of lets go came from the girls and they headed in. The inside looked as bad as the outside. While Chuck took Logan around the house the girls wanted to explore the place on their own. The two men had just entered Chuck's old room when Karen came running up the steps and into the room. "You guys have got to see what we found in the basement. All kinds of files and shit with the CIA and NSA logos on them. Olivia thinks this house used to be spy hide out or something so move your asses."

Chuck and Logan flew down the steps and made their way into the basement. Their jaws nearly hit the floor when they saw what Karen was talking about. There were boxes stacked on shelves that were labeled with names that made no sense, Hydra and Frost to name a few. As Chuck walked around the basement wondering what all the files were, Logan was busy looking through some of the boxes. The first few didn't seem like much, the one labeled Fulcrum held promise, hydra was about the same but the one labeled Frost got his attention real quick. He was reading what appeared to be the first page when he noticed the date on the first print out. He also saw a page that said MARY BARTOWSKI: MISSING he held that one off to the side in case Chuck didn't follow his lead, he was here to train him after all.


	3. Chapter 3

"Chuck get your ass over here now," Logan bellowed. Chuck quickly came over to look at what Logan had in his hand. "I need you to think real hard Chuck, is this around the date your mom left?"

"I can't be 100% sure but it was around that time so I'd say yes. Where are you going with this?"

"You'll see. Didn't you say when you were a kid your Mom used to tell you stories before bed?"

"Yeah she told us quite a few actually. El and I were just talking about this a while ago. I told her my favorite was the Frost…" _Chucks brain finally connected the dots. Frost Queen stories, about a queen that leaves her home to save her loved ones and a Frost label on the box in his old basement?_ "You don't think this is about my mom do you?"

"I have no idea. What did your dad do?" asked Logan.

"I don't know what his job was but he did like to play with computers and things like that." When Chuck finished his mind went into over drive. _Computer print outs starting around the day my mom left, the weird computer in the room I looked at when I was like nine. Mentions of the CIA. I need more information and these boxes have plenty._ "Logan these boxes may have clues about my mom and dad. We need to keep looking through them. Let's grab a few and take them home where we can really check them out."

"Sounds good to me Chuck, ladies each one of you grab a box and let's head out."

"Grab the ones closest to the Frost box, my gut tells me if it was my dad he would have kept anything that was connected close to each other. We'll come back in a few days and grab the rest of the boxes. Who knows what else we'll find in them."

Once they had all the boxes they wanted they departed the house and went back to the mansion. During the trip back Logan suggested to Chuck he should try snooping around the CIA and NSA data bases and see if anything turned up. Chuck wasn't real sure he should be digging into the CIA and NSA systems so he voiced his concerns to Karen who was standing near bye. "Karen I don't know if it's a good idea to be hacking into the CIA, it's illegal as hell."

"It may be the only way to find your mom. It's your decision on how you want to go about finding your mom. Weigh your options carefully and make a choice on which one you want to try, then go with that one. We're ok with whatever you decide to do."

To cover up his search for Frost he also sent BOT's looking for data on Fulcrum and Hydra. It took well over two months for the BOTs that Chuck sent out to return any useful information. During the Fulcrum search a few locations and names turned up that matched the ones in the file box. They didn't get as much from the Frost search except for the mention of Alexi Volkoff. They began searching that name as well. A few weeks' later lots of data began coming in, mostly the names of low level grunts and some businesses that had ties to his evil empire. The one thing that stood out was a small note at the bottom of a single page that said an agent was sent to infiltrate his organization but never returned. The date was almost the same time that Chuck's mom went missing.

With the new information Chuck decided to call a planning session. Once they were all sitting around the pool Chuck began to speak, "From the information we have gathered so far we have two options. The first is we turn this information over to the CIA but since they fucked it up so bad already that may not be the best option. The second one is we go after my mom on our own. We can start small because none of us has done this shit before. To keep the Government off our backs we give them what they want, anyone related to Fulcrum or Volkoff and his minions. We can also leave a few messages around with information of Fulcrum, which from the information in the box looks like a splintered part of the CIA looking to take over. I'm sure The NSA would really appreciate that. Any questions so far?"

Unknown to the six people sitting around the pool a seventh person was standing just outside their line of sight. Ellie had just returned from her shift and decided to go for a swim and was making her way towards the pool but when she heard them talking she stopped dead in her tracks.

"I have one," said Logan. "If the CIA is this fucked up who should we give the information to? Wait, never mind brain fart there. We send any information and people we capture to the NSA. From our hacking I found out that Colonel Diane Beckman will get her star soon and be named director of the NSA. We can track down the names on the list and when we catch them call in a tip to the NSA to her attention. If we do it right it will help her career and put her solidly on our side. What do you guys think?"

"I think Chuck should make the choice, it's his mom after all," stated Olivia getting nods from around the table showing their agreement. Chuck looked at her for a few seconds before he remembered something from almost 2 years ago, _I can only guide you and give you choices. You will have to make the decisions. That's what they have been doing for the past few months guiding me. They've never decided what to do or how to go about it, they always leave it up to me._

"I think you should leave it alone," said Ellie as she marched towards them with anger in her eyes. "Whatever it is it can't be good if the CIA and NSA are involved with it."

Chuck knew the look his sister had in her eyes and what it promised didn't bode well for anyone sitting around the pool. He knew he had to calm his sister down in a hurry so he blurted out the first thing that came to his mind, "we're trying to find mom and dad!" That did the trick as Ellie stopped dead in her tracks and some of the fire left her eyes. She only said one word, "explain". Chuck told her to sit down with the group and explained, with the help of the others, to her what they had found so far. It took a while and when they were done they looked at Ellie who was just sitting there contemplating what she had just heard. When she finished thinking things over she started speaking, "When dad left I made him a promise to keep you safe. If you do this I don't know if I can. I don't want you to get hurt."

"El, I love you and know how hard on you it was raising me and I appreciate all you have done for me but you can't protect me forever. You remember what happened two years ago. I did something very stupid, stepped into the street and got hit by a car because I was so engrossed in my stupid game I never looked up. Things happen for a reason El, maybe this is one of them, I don't know," he shrugged his shoulders as he said this. "What I do know is if they're out there I want to find them. I, we need closure with them. I can't say right now if I ever want them to be a part of my life again, it is way too early for that."

"You've grown up little brother," Ellie said as she pulled him into a bone crushing hug. "When did this happen?" Despite struggling to breathe he managed to get out, "getting hit by a car and being confined to a bed will do that to you." Chuck could feel Ellie giggle when he said that.

"I need to do this Ellie, not just for myself but for others as well. You know I wanted to join the military when I got better but couldn't? Part of the reason I wanted to join was because of the accident. The guy that hit me had just committed a double murder and was fleeing the scene. He used an unregistered gun he acquired somehow. One of the leads we have, Volkoff, deals in illegal arms, if we can somehow stop him or at least slow Volkoff down a bit maybe other people won't have to die."

"You don't plan on going after that maniac yourself do you?"

"God no El, we just want to find mom, but if somehow the two are connected we'll turn everything we find over to the NSA and let them figure out what to do with it. If our plan works like we hope the NSA should believe us by then. For now we just go about our business like we normally would and when it's time to strike we do it quickly and quietly so no one knows."

"I may not like it, but I'm proud of you Chuck. If you do this, I want to know everything you have right now and everything you get from now on. Logan, you'll need to catch me up on the firearms training. If Chuck does this I'll be right there with him, they're my parents too. We do this as a family Chuck, all seven of us. Deal?" Everyone around the pool agreed.

 **June 2007**

General Beckman sat at her desk once again amazed at the report in front of her. The reports started coming in almost eighteen months ago when she received word from the NSA office outside of Pittsburg Pa. that a man was found unconscious outside of the building tied up with a note pinned to his shirt. All the note said was for **D. Beckman, he's Fulcrum courtesy LCE, run DNA for proof and don't tell CIA or our help stops.** When the Pittsburg office ran his DNA the results came back that he had died in Afghanistan in 2004. A few days later it happened again this time in Atlanta, this time it was a CIA agent that was presumed dead. Then in Germany, Nevada, Utah, Texas and California. There was no pattern that would help them determine where, when or how they would turn up, they were just there. Each time the results were the same, they were soldiers or agents from the three letter agencies, missing in action, deceased, or AWOL. So far over one hundred Fulcrum agents had been dropped off to various NSA locations around the country and the world. Beckman was broken out of her thoughts when her phone rang.

"General Beckman how can I help you?"

"Ma'am, its Agent Blackman of the LA office. This morning our office received a tip to check out a van was parked a few blocks from here in the Staples parking lot. We sent agents to check it out and a different note was stuck to the side. Inside the van we found eight men out cold and tied up."

"Don't keep me waiting agent, what did the note say?"

"D. Beckman, these men are arms dealers with … courtesy LCE. Use the phone we left taped to the van and call us, we need to talk. Our number is programed in the phone."

"The note didn't say who the men worked for?"

"No Ma'am it was left blank. After we checked the phone out we shipped the phone with one of our secure couriers, you should have it in a few hours."

"Thank you agent Blackman, Beckman out." _Who the hell are you people? Guess I'll find out in a few hours._

It was past normal duty hours when the phone finally arrived at General Beckman's office. Within seconds the box was ripped open and she was dialing the preprogramed number. It was picked up after two rings.

"Hello Ma'am good to finally talk to you, this is L how can we be of assistance to you today?" Beckman could feel the hairs on the back of her neck rising, but she quickly pushed her anger down.

"We got your latest package but the note was incomplete. I need to know who the men work for so I can take further action."

"Don't so hasty General, please give us a few minutes to explain everything. These phones are more secure than the ones you have so don't worry about us being over heard."

"I'll listen to what you have to say, you've been making me look good for the past eighteen months so you deserve that much."

"Thank you. First and I can't stress this enough, don't trust anyone. From what we have been able to determine Fulcrum not only has people on the outside like the ones we've been dropping off, they also have people on the inside all of the alphabet soup. We've left them alone for now to keep them from figuring out that someone is on to them."

"My God you mean some of our own people are in bed with this group? This is turning into a nightmare."

"I couldn't have said it better myself General. On to the name, you may want to write this down so you can take action. The men that showed up today deal arms for Alexi Volkoff. I'm sure you know who he is?"

"We've been after him for years. How do you know about him?"

"General it's C, that's the question you want to know? Not how did you figure out about Fulcrum when you guys didn't seem to have a clue? You seem to be a no nonsense type of person so I'm going to lay it all out for you, but in return you tell me the absolute truth in return. That's how my team operates, if you can't do that our help stops and you can dangle in the wind like you were before."

"I'll agree to those terms if you agree to mine. I'm a General and deserve some respect. We treat each other with respect like colleagues do and we will all get along fine, deal?"

"Perfect General that's what we wanted to hear. I'm a hacker General so is my partner. I'm the best in the world bar none and he's almost as good. We stumbled onto some information about two years ago and did some digging and these are the results. We want to help clean up the scum of the earth to protect innocent lives but we want and need to do it our way. As you can see its working. Sometime during the next week you'll be getting deliveries in Philadelphia, Italy, New York and Boston." The phone call continued for a while longer and covered deliveries and locations for the next month.

"Is there anything else before I go C?"

"Yes there is, during our initial digging we found references to an agent code named Frost and links to Volkoff. I need to know if any agency ever had an operative that went by the name. If so we need all the information you have on them. As soon as you get it give me a call."

"That's a tall order but I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you General for all your help. Oh, one last thing before we go, I think it would be a good idea for us to meet in person and make plans for the future. Our coming to you is not the best idea right now because of the leaks that might be in the NSA. I figure around the end of September would be a good time."

"I'll have to get back to you on that. I do agree we should meet in person at a later date. Could we possibly work a video conference for now?"

"That will work for now. I'll send you a secure laptop via Fed Ex tomorrow. It's important you follow these instructions, don't hook in to a wireless network, don't send it to your techs to see if they can reverse engineer it, the computer has a built in failsafe and finally don't hook into any government network, it will automatically go into protection mode and crash your entire system."

"Damn, that must be one hell of a computer you're sending me."

"For now it's the best one you'll ever use. Let's schedule a conference for the Monday after the holiday at 2000 your time?"

"Until then C and L, have a great day and thanks again," the General said just before hanging up. _These guys are unorthodox as hell but they get me better results than my own people._

 **Malibu:** Logan's house pool side.

"I have to hand it to you little brother," said Ellie while walking up to Chuck. "That went down just like you said it would. On a side note I can't believe things have gone so well for us so far."

"Like I said before men are pigs," stated Chuck. "All you have to do to get them is have a hot chick walk up to them in a bar and ask them if they want to have sex and it's all over, easy peasy." _Oh shit I just told my sister she is a hot chick._

"Thanks for saying I'm hot by the way," Ellie replied with a smile. "After watching you two men work on the women, it doesn't appear that we women are much better. As soon as you two walk in the girls and I swear we hear panties dropping."

"Speaking of panties, when did you girls decide you no longer need to wear the bottoms of your bikinis while outside?" asked Chuck.

"Christ Chuck," exclaimed Riley, "we haven't been wearing them for months now and it took you this long to notice?"

"It was actually Ellie's idea," said Karen jumping into the conversation. "Once she joined us and stopped wearing her top, she didn't see the use for the butt floss bottoms, her words not mine, and dropped hers to the ground."

"I can explain little brother. It's actually healthy to air our lady bits out, I'm a doctor I should know. So what better place than the deck around a pool?"

"If you say so ladies. What do you say we fire up the grill, cook up some steaks and lobster and party for the rest of the night?" asked Logan. A resounding chorus of yes followed his suggestion.

For the next couple months everything was running smoothly with regards to the Fulcrum project. And they finally got a lead on Frost and Volkoff. Chuck's guess was right on the money about his mom. When Beckman told them that she found out that Frost was indeed the name of a female CIA operative that went missing more than ten years ago. Her real name was Mary Bartowski. This shocked the entire team and made Chucks resolve to find his mother even stronger. Chuck's birthday was coming up and Ellie planed a party for him at a fire hall near their old apartment. This would allow the people from the Buy More to attend. Thankfully the party went off without a hitch and no violence took place. To their credit Morgan and Lester made sure to stay well away from any of the women that walked in with Chuck. A minor skirmish did take place when a slightly drunk Morgan got too close to Ellie. Thankfully Chuck got there in time to pull him away before Ellie could beat his ass.

When Chuck woke up the next day he had trouble recalling much of the night before despite not having drank that much. The one thing he was thankful for was he was alone in his bed. As luck would have it, in his case bad luck, he had to work that afternoon. He showered, dressed and headed off to work. Much to Chuck's surprise his day was going surprisingly well, even with his hangover. When Chuck went to grab his lunch he noticed a strange man walking around the parking lot, when he got a look at his face he knew everything there was to know about him. He called Logan straight away.

"Logan, I have a problem here at work and you're not got to believe it."

"I might if you told me what happened."

"I went to get lunch at the deli and I saw a guy walking across the parking lot, when I saw his face I knew everything about him. He's some kind of demolition expert wanted in Russia for multiple bombings. I'm going to take his ass down and drop him off to Beckman's people. There has to be a reason a guy like him is walking around here."

"After you take him down stuff his ass in your truck. I'll send a couple of the girls over to pick him up. Use the twelve hour darts but put a hurting on him before you do. When you get home we can figure out what's going on with you."

"I gotta go before he skips out. He'll be in the back seat." Chuck followed the bomber to his car and just before he got into the car chuck grabbed him by the arm and pulled him out.

The bomber shouted in broken English, "What is your problem?"

"You, you're my problem. If you think I'm going to let a piece of shit like you blow up anything in my country, you're sadly mistaken." As soon as he finished talking he delivered three palms strikes to the bombers chest and a right cross to his chin knocking him out. For good measure he hit him a few extra times in the ribs. He carried him to his truck where he flexi cuffed him, then hit him with a 12 hour dart, tossed him in and went back to work.


	4. Chapter 4

**AN:** Things get crazy from here on out. It's important that you remember this is an Alternate Universe story, so don't expect the characters to act the same. In Beckman's case she has been working with them for a while and has spoken to them many times. I think on the show, Beckman and crew had issues with Chuck because, be honest now, he was a sniveling tool at times. Here he isn't, so Beckman and crew respect him more.

Chuck was bored off his ass standing at the Nerd Herd desk when he saw _her_ walk in. _Beautiful he thought,_ a long legged blonde with legs up to the crack of her butt and curves in all the right places. As she made her way towards the desk all kinds of thoughts were going through Chucks mind, _shit she's hot, oh no she's coming over, wait what's wrong with me? I talk to beautiful girls all the time. I think I'll ask her out._ "Hi, can I help you?" at this point Morgan came up and made his presence known. "Come on Chuck, can't you leave at least one girl for the rest of us?"

"I'm sorry about him," Chuck said pointing at Morgan, "he has issues."

"I can see that. I'm having trouble with my phone and I really need it," said the blonde.

"I'm sure I can fix it right up, let me see it." The blonde handed her phone over to Chuck. He took a quick look at it knew right away what the problem. "Here's the problem, a screw came loose and I tightened it for you. I'm Chuck by the way," Chuck said as he extended his hand.

"Sarah, pleased to meet you. What did your coworker mean when he said leave some girls for the rest of us?"

"Don't mind Morgan, he's not right in the head. He's a twenty eight year old man that still thinks he's fifteen. He's referring to the fact I live with my sister, a friend and five other women."

"Wow, I didn't expect that." _I also didn't expect you to look so good. You look way better than the picture Graham sent me._ "I'm kinda new in town what's there do around here?"

"Not too much I can assure you. But if you're willing to take a risk you can follow me to my house in Malibu so I can get changed and I can take you out to a nice dinner and club afterwards?"

"That sounds like a good idea to me, when do you get off?"

"I'm ready to clock out now. Give me a second I'll be right with you."

It wasn't long before the pair were in the parking lot heading towards their cars. Sarah pointed at her car. "Nice Porsche, Sarah, but I prefer pure American muscle," Chuck said pointing at his Mustang, "Mines a one off, 1967 Mustang Shelby GT Super Snake, runs like hell when she's asked."

"I didn't take you for a muscle car type of guy" said Sarah. "I always figured that Nerds were into the smaller less powerful models."

"Most are, but I'm not your normal nerd am I?"

"So far no Chuck. We better get moving or we won't get a chance to go out," stated Sarah. It didn't take long to get on the road and begin the trip to Malibu. Inside each car a phone call was made.

"Logan, a CIA agent by the name of Sarah Walker came to the store today saying she needed her phone fixed. It's a simple trick they teach agents at the farm. I'm bringing her by the house before our date."

"Beckman called earlier today and said she has to send a John Casey here to look for some classified data that was supposedly sent to you via email. I told her she better tag along so we can figure this out, I'm glad I told her to come now that the CIA is involved. Did you get any strange emails?"

"Not that I can remember. I told you earlier for some reason I can't remember much of last night and I hardly drank that much. Do me a favor real quick and check my computer. I think I opened an email from an old frat buddy from Stanford." A few minutes later Logan returned to the conversation.

"Your computer's toast, like fried."

"Shit. Nothing I can do now, let's just see how this plays out. What's Diane's eta?"

"Karen and Nicole are on the way back with her. They should be back just after you get here."

In Sarah's car a much different conversation was taking place. "Did you meet up with the mark Agent Walker?"

"Yes Sir I did. In fact we are going out on a date later tonight. I am currently in route to his house. When I get there I plan to look around and see if I can get a look at his computer."

"Why didn't you stick with the plan and go to his place while he was at work?" This caused Sarah to roll her eyes before responding. "I did Sir, but the Intel you sent me was fucking wrong, again. He doesn't live in Echo Park he lives in Malibu. And I have no idea what the address is."

"Just remember the objective, if you can't get the data back kill him."

"I'm sure that won't be necessary but if push comes to shove I'll do my job."

"Very well, contact me when you have finished." And Graham ended the call.

Sarah was amazed when she pulled into the long drive leading to Chuck's house. It was a damn mansion. Chuck was already waiting for her when she exited her car and walked towards him. He took her hand and led her into the house.

"I'm going to take you out to the pool to meet my sister, she's been after me for a few years to get a girlfriend and since you're my date you'll do." He said leading her towards the pool area.

"Isn't it too soon to introduce me to your sister?"

"Under normal circumstances I would agree, but I don't want you bored out of your mind while you wait for me. Plus my friend and his girls will be there so you'll have plenty of company." As soon as they stepped on the pool deck Sarah stopped dead in her tracks. Standing around the pool were four of the most beautiful women she had ever seen and a man that made the Greek gods cry. That normally wouldn't make Sarah stop, it was the fact that all the women were buck ass naked. The other thing that stood out was the women's bodies. They were in great physical shape and if she had to guess less than ten percent body fat. One of the girls ran up to Chuck and gave him a big hug and a kiss on the cheek.

"So little brother, is this the girl you have a date with tonight?"

"Yep, Ellie this fine lady is Sarah and Sarah this is my sister Ellie." The ladies shook hands as Chuck carried on with the introductions, "From left to right are Claire, Riley, Olivia, and the stud is Logan."

"Okayyy. I wasn't prepared for this, you could have warned me about it Chuck!"

"Come on Sarah where would the fun be in that? You'll get to meet Nicole and Karen in a bit. They are currently picking up someone from the airport. They should be here by the time I get out of the shower."

"Sarah," began Claire, "why don't you strip off those clothes and take a swim with us?"

"No offense but I hardly know you people and I wouldn't feel comfortable walking around naked in front of you."

"I'll buy that for now, as long as that's the real reason and it's not because you have throwing knives tucked in your boot or a Smith and Wesson 5906 tucked in your pants behind your back, it's cool." Just as Sarah was looking stunned and formulating her response, Karen and Nicole walked on to the deck shedding their clothes as they did. Behind them was a middle aged woman with reddish grey hair, and a hulking miserable looking man.

"Ahhh the gangs all here," declared Chuck. "General Beckman it's a pleasure to finally meet you." He said extending his hand which the General took. "And you my miserable looking bastard must be Major John Casey NSA." Casey clenched his fists like he was going to attack Chuck and all hell broke loose. He found himself flat on his back beneath a very naked Ellie who had her hand raised in a position that was known to be a killing blow. She then began to speak in a slow and deadly tone, "listen you over grown piece of crap, if you ever and I mean ever disrespect my brother or anyone here on this deck I'll cut off your balls and shove them down your throat. Nod once if you understand me you worthless ass." Casey was all set to reply when General Beckman spoke up.

"Stand down Major, and Ellie was that show of force really necessary?"

Ellie was undeterred as she stood up still glaring daggers at Casey. "Yes Ma'am it was. Casey is a guest in my house and he made a threating gesture towards my brother, General no disrespect intended but you better keep a leash on your dog if you want him to work with us."

"Ellie, that's enough," hissed Chuck. "Before this gets completely out of hand, can you explain what the hell is going on and why can I look at someone and know everything about them?"

"In a nut shell after 9/11 the intelligence agencies put all there data into a special computer. It was designed to ferret out the information stored within the computer using visual and audio clues. Two nights ago Bryce Larkin broke into the intersect computer and sent the data to you Chuck. From what Logan explained earlier to me, you somehow managed to download the intersect data into your head. Bryce was killed that night by Casey trying to get away. It was then decided that a joint CIA/NSA project would be established."

"That's some heavy shit there General," said Chuck. "Here's how I see it, Sarah can join our team to represent the CIA, yes Sarah I knew you were CIA as soon as you asked me to fix your phone and Casey here can also join as long as he loses his I'm better than anyone else attitude. I don't trust the CIA as you already know so I would prefer if we got any missions from you."

"Ma'am" Casey spoke up for the first time sending a cautious glance at Ellie who was still staring daggers at him and holding a throwing knife at the ready, "I understand Chuck has the intersect in his head, but he's an untrained civilian. I'm not sure he candle this."

"John, Sarah," began Beckman hoping to forestall any violence, "You have both heard of Fulcrum correct?" she received nods from both of them and carried on, "we didn't even know about them until eighteen months ago. These people standing here are the ones that brought Fulcrum to our attention. One day Fulcrum agents started showing up on our door steps, literally, they were bound and gagged just laying by the doors. Over that time they have taken down several Fulcrum cells and put over two hundred of them in jail. They have plans in place that will bring down Alexi Volkoff within the next few months. Just the other day Chuck single handedly stopped an assassination attempt on an Army General by catching a Serbian bomber in Burbank. They don't belong to any agency, they took it upon themselves to help this country and protect it with their lives. So I'll ask you one more time, are these people the kind you could work with, tell me now if you can't and I'll get somebody else to take your place."

"General, I'm on board with this team if they'll have me," began Sarah, "I just don't understand what they have against the CIA."

"I'll tell you what we have against the CIA," snapped Chuck and the anger in his voice was clear, "fifteen years ago your precious CIA sent my mother undercover into Volkoff Industries to bring him down. Despite her repeated calls for extraction they left her there to fucking rot. Graham was one of the people she reached out to and he didn't do a damn thing. Then that rat bastard Bryce betrays his country by stealing the intersect and sending it to me. Out of the 200 fulcrum agents we captured, eighty percent were former CIA agents. That, Sarah, is the reason we don't trust the CIA. The one thing we require from the people we work with is complete honesty, if you can't do that we don't need you."

"I'm sorry Chuck I didn't know any of that." Sarah explained. She was also mulling her situation over. She just got filled in what the team had done so far and their record was pretty impressive. She also knew that physical training was very important to these people because each of them looked to be excellent physical condition. "Part of my CIA training to taught me to lie and deceive people, I promise to tell you the truth as I know it. It may take me some time but I know I can get there. I'm in."

"We got off to a bad start Chuck most of it was my fault. It's been a long time since I was in another position other than leader and after what I just heard I'm in," said Casey. "By the way Ellie nice take down."

"Thanks Casey. Once you guys finally move in I'll get you started on your work out regime. You're strong but you're too slow, we need to make you faster."

"Good, that's settled then," stated Beckman. "Now where are the beers and steaks you promised me Logan? In keeping with the motto of the team, work hard and party harder, let's get this fucking party started," shouted the General. Casey just stared hard at his commanding officer wondering what the hell was going on. Sarah was at a complete loss about what to say or do. None of this was making any sense to either of them. Similar thoughts were going through each agents heads, _what kind of rabbit hole did I just fall into?_ When Chuck noticed the discomfort on Sarah's face he decided it was time to approach Sarah and help her out a bit.

"Hey Sarah that was a lot to take in. Do you still want to go out or would you rather stay here?" asked Chuck.

"You still want to go out with me even knowing I was playing you like a mark?"

"Sure, thanks to the data base in my head I knew you were CIA when you walked into the Buy More. I know everything you've done while with the CIA and don't give a shit. I still thought you were hot and it was worth a shot at asking you for a date. So what it's going to be Sarah?"

"How about we hang here and do some team building?" _I can't believe it, he should be running for the hills right now. If he doesn't care what can it hurt?_ "We can go out tomorrow if you want."

"Sounds like a plan Sarah. Don't worry about driving back to the hotel the CIA put you up in and stay here. As you can see we have plenty of rooms." Chuck glanced over to where the General was tossing back her third shot and smiled. "Casey and the General will be staying by the looks of things. She's working on getting hammered." Just as Sarah was about to respond Ellie strolled up to her and began speaking.

"Sarah let's get a move on there, you're the only chick here that still has her clothes on. If ya wanna be on the team you have to act like it."

"Ellie I'm not sure if that's such a good idea, I have a date with your brother tomorrow and I was kind of hoping to have a date before he saw me naked." Ellie took a moment to ponder Sarah's words before commenting.

"That makes sense I suppose, but don't wait too long before you screw him six ways to Sunday, that boy seriously needs to get laid. And don't give me those 'what the hell is she talking about eyes'. I saw the way you were looking at my brother during the meeting, he was looking at you the same way."

"Ellie I can't do anything with Chuck, it's against agent asset rules. I'd get tossed out of the CIA."

"Well you're wrong on both counts. First Chuck and by extension his team are not assets. We are considered paid private contractors of the NSA. That by default makes point number two invalid. So what if you get kicked out of the CIA, you could join us or the NSA." Ellie said with a shoulder shrug. "You'd still be doing the same job just under a different name. I don't see what the problem is," replied Ellie. Sarah was getting ready to give her answer when her phone went off. Even with Ellie standing there she answered the call and put it on speaker, "Walker secure."

"Walker, I just found out that Beckman is sending Casey in to grab the asset. He's a killer Sarah, real old school. I can't afford to let that happen. I need for you to bring him in ASAP." Sarah heard Ellie snort at the director's comment. She then looked in the direction Ellie was pointing and saw the General doing shots off of Chuck's rock hard abs. _lucky bitch._ Casey was licking salt off of Riley's neck and doing a shot. It was all she could do to keep from laughing out loud.

"The asset or mark as you keep referring to him as, has a name, Chuck. He does not fit the definition of either, he is a paid contractor working for General Beckman head of the NSA. So I have to ask, Graham is your Intel always this fucked up?" Ellie chuckled at that comment. "I am currently with both the General and Casey out by Chuck's pool. Right now the General is tossing back shots and grinding against Chuck. Casey just did a tequila shot off a naked chick's stomach. It doesn't look like he's going to kill anybody."

"What the hell are you talking about? Beckman is here in D.C. I spoke to her earlier and she said she was in her office. Casey just left a few hours ago."

"I don't know what to tell you Sir, but I'm looking at the General right now." Sarah noticed the way Chuck and Beckman were dancing and grinding on each other and decided to make her move. "I have to go something important just came up." And she disconnected the call. "Ellie let's go we have shit to do, I have a man to catch."

When Chuck finally got a break from dancing with the General he scanned the area around the pool looking for Sarah. To say he was shocked would have been an understatement. Sarah was walking straight at him naked as the day she was born and with the exception of her head the same amount of hair.

"If you're done with the General it's my turn and will be for the rest of the night, this is our date remember?"

"I remember Sarah and for your information your mine tonight, do you understand?" The forcefulness behind Chuck's voice left her weak in the knees and all she could mumble out was ok. The party continued long into the night before ending.

The day after the party the group convened in the data center's small conference room so Graham could join in on the meeting. The main order of business was centered on where the team would operate. Logan made it clear that they would not use his home as a base of operations. Chuck was the first one to come up and idea and voiced it.

"As you all know a while ago I sold my second computer game to Sony and I started looking for office space and I found a building I liked. Not too far from here is an old Pacific Bell building that used to be one of the distribution points for all the phone lines in the area. It's roughly one hundred feet across the front and two hundred feet from front to back. The outside is red brick with no windows, the second floor is where the offices were located. By my estimation if you had crews working twenty four seven the remodel shouldn't take more than a week to ten days. The first floor and basement are a different story all together."

"I like the idea so far Chuck," General Beckman said. "What are your plans for the other floors?"

"I envision the basement split down the middle from front to back with one side gutted and used for our computer servers. I want it jammed packed with servers so we can store everything and expand as needed. The other half would be an indoor range and armory. Casey what's the average length of pistol range?"

"In the Corps the furthest target is seventy five feet, hand guns aren't very accurate after that." Casey paused for a second then continued "I'd add at least ten feet of buffering material in front of the wall. You don't want to weaken the foundation with rounds hitting it. Five feet would be needed for the firing line itself. Chuck said the basement would be split in half leaving about plenty of room left over. I'd say make three firing lanes of ten feet each. We would have left for a thirty by forty five foot armory which would be plenty for a team this size."

"Thanks Casey. When we go to the design phase I want you to take the range portion of it. That leaves the first floor to go. Sarah any thoughts?"

"I'd put in a few small bedrooms in case we have to spend some nights here. Add small kitchen slash break room, gym, dojo and a locker room. If it could be squeezed in a small medical bay."

"Thanks Sarah. General, Director, how soon can we expect the building to ready for us to move in?"

"The hard part will be to get the funding," Beckman answered. "Once we get that our crews can get it done inside a month. Graham since the intersect is a CIA project I'm sure you can get the funding."

"I'll see what I can to, it may take a bit." Just as Graham finished a sequence of tones was heard coming from one of the computers. Logan jumped up and went to the machine that was making the noise and turned on the screen. "Sir someone inside the CIA just tried gaining access to our system, I'm shutting you down. We'll be in touch soon." Graham's connection was cut and Logan looked at his team.

"General for your benefit I'll explain what just happened. My computer sent me two alerts, the first was like I said someone in the CIA trying to get in our system. From the info our system gave me Graham had someone in the room with him out of our view piggy backing off his connection, don't worry General they didn't get in, but the next time they reboot their computers it won't be pretty." Logan turned to face Chuck and Ellie "The second one came from one of Chuck's BOTs. It got a hit on an email address being accessed in Moscow containing the name Frost. It's your call now." Chuck and Ellie's faces turned grim at the news, then hard. The three new comers would never have believed the two fun loving people they had just met could look like that. Chuck got up from his spot at the table and stood at the facing everyone seated there.

"General we are about to begin our takedown of Volkoff. I would like to offer you two options. The first is you can leave now and let us do our thing and have plausible deniability or you can join us and possibly risk you career. The Choice is yours."

"I've been stuck behind a desk for far too long and can retire in comfort right now. I need to make a call that should take no longer than five minutes. If I get the go ahead from the President I'm in."

"Take all the time you need, I need to send an email first anyway and see if I get an answer." Chuck walked over to his special computer followed by Ellie. Once they were seated in front of it they began planning what they would send in the email so if it was their mom she would know it was them.

"I have an idea, why don't we embed a link that will take her to a discussion room talking about fairy tales in the email. We open a room discussing the Frost Queen and hope she shows up."

"That could work Ellie, but a link might get filtered out. We just put it in without the dot com."

"Do it Chuck." Five minutes later the email was on its way and the chat room was open. General Beckman came back in the room with a big smile on her face and said "I'm good to go. When do you expect to start the take down?"

"Right now if Chuck gets an answer from Frost," Logan said. "The real fun won't start for at least three weeks from when we begin. The first two weeks will be cyber-attacks aimed at his systems, Chuck is better suited to explain that since he designed the attacks. When that's in the final stages we create a situation that requires Frost's skill set." A loud YES stopped whatever talking was going on. Ellie was giving fist pumps and slapping Chuck on the back hard enough to make him rock in his chair. "Sounds like they got through to her."

"Ya think," came from Sarah.


	5. Chapter 5

**AN:** I would like to thank all of you that have reviewed or followed my work, so thanks. A review I received helped me realize that more detail was needed to stem any confusion about why or how things happen. I took their advice and reworked this chapter prior to posting it.

 **Frosts room Volkoff headquarters**

Frost logged on to her email account for the first time in several months. She had been out taking care of things for Alexi in Siberia. Because he was a paranoid person the only place the account could be accessed was at headquarters, he felt it was safer that way. When she logged on she had the usual memo's that were way out of date so she deleted them. On email did catch her eye, it was titled Frost Queen the story discussion. The more she read the more her heart raced and the more interested she became. The last part of the email convinced her to go to the link. _I remember when I was a young boy about the age of five my mother would read me the story of the Frost Queen before I went to bed. It was a favorite time of mine growing up. I miss my mother since she's gone. If you remember good times like these and want to connect with someone that shared your experience come to our Frosty place on the web and join in the discussion._

She quickly typed in the address and found the room, it only had two members online and joined the chat.

Frostqueen: how are you today?

CBradioguy: doing well. It's a slow day. Just my sister and me on today

FrostyEFB: it's usually not this slow. I like the part when the Frost Queen defeats her enemies and returns home

CBradioguy: me too, I used to pretend if I were there I'd go help her out. I even had a plan to get her back from the cold dark place she had to go to protect her family

Frostqueen: do you think your plan could work

FrostyEFB: you bet it would. My brothers a genius and a master of planning

The chatting went on for some time until both parties confirmed through code that they were who they said they were.

CBradioguy: one last thing before we go. Next time we chat we can discuss some music. My favorite song is Winds of Change by the Scorpions.

Frostqueen: I'll have to check that one out. See you next time.

 **Malibu**

A smiling Chuck and Ellie returned to the main room and Chuck addressed the people gathered there, "It's our mom alright," stated Chuck, the he turned toward the General, "Did you get any word yet?"

"I have the green light to do what needs to be done for as long as it takes. They wanted me to come back to DC, but after some arguing the importance of this mission they agreed I could remain here. I had to cave on this being my sole priority and agreed to handle some important items here via phone and email. Is there a plan in place for this mission?"

"Claire, can you order some food this could take a while. On the odd chance we finish quickly we can eat it around the pool," said Logan. Claire nodded her head and called in an order.

"This mission is hitting close to home for Chuck and he's having a hard time dealing with it, so he asked me to take the lead. We can give you the basic outline for now but will need Casey's input to fine tune it. We want you to know what happened to get us to this point." Logan began, "Of course the original plan had less people and spread us pretty thin. With you guys on board we can expand the plans a bit. Chuck is one of the best hackers in the world if not the best. We already informed the General and after a long discussion she gave us the go ahead. According to Chuck I'm almost as good as he is, maybe top ten. We visited Chuck and Ellie's old house a while ago and found a treasure trove of intelligence in boxes. We picked the three that had the most information, Fulcrum, Volkoff and Frost." He was interrupted by Casey, "that's how you found Fulcrum."

"Correct," answered Logan. "We needed a diversion to cover our real investigation and we used Fulcrum to accomplish this. We also needed an ally we could depend on, so we began taking down Fulcrum when the General got her star. We knew that a new General, who with our help, was making a big name for herself in the intelligence community would be grateful as hell. It was a win, win situation for all of us. When we began our search for Chuck's mom we both sent out modified Bots looking for certain code word information. It gave us back doors into loads of places. In addition to that I hacked into the CIA data base on a hunch that Chuck's mom was a CIA operative. It took a while before the General confirmed she was. The CIA isn't that bright, most of her redacted files were still there. They failed to realize just erasing or deleting the files doesn't make them go away, it just over writes part of the file or the link to it. When we downloaded the _deleted_ files we ran them through a program that fills in the blanks. We started hacking anything that looked related to Volkoff and planted special Bots in them. We have almost seventy percent of his network ready to come down with a few key strokes."

Logan paused and glanced over at Chuck, seeing his small nod, he addressed the General personally. "This is where we need your help, and if all goes well you will look even better than you already do. Once we activate our program all the information on the computers we infected will be downloaded to our servers. We need more storage space as fast as we can get it. In exchange, you will have the names, accounts, locations of almost everyone associated with Volkoff. Chuck estimates the process will take about two weeks to complete. We have to do the download slow and during what is considered after normal working hours so no one will notice."

"Why Just at night," Sarah asked.

He paused to grab a drink before answering her, "Sometimes companies with a large number of computers will let their IT departments push out any updates that are needed, these are done at night so they don't interfere with the employees work during the day. Employees leave their computers powered on when they leave and the updates are pushed down and installed. That's why we will wait until the off hours to hit them. When we have as much information that we can get, we will freeze his accounts. This has to be done last because he'll notice that real quickly. The final part is getting his mom. Volkoff sends her places to _fix_ his problems, in this case the main bank in Moscow. That's when we snatch her."

"You'll have your servers and storage tomorrow. I'm a bit pissed you played me like that but since I got all the credit and I look like a Godsend to the Government I'll give you a pass. One question, would it be possible to capture Volkoff as well?"

"That part is still fluid Ma'am," said Chuck. "We'll decide that after we get mom out. With no funds most of the hired muscle should leave and make it easier. One thing we won't do is send one of the women here in undercover like the CIA did. That plan was fucking stupid from the start, we're pretty sure morons have to be running the CIA. I'm pretty sure we can make it happen however. I think that sums it up, are there any questions? Just in time the foods here." Chuck reached over and took Sarah's hand and led her out of the room towards the TV room.

"I'm sorry about tonight we were supposed to out but now that doesn't look like it will happen. How about we just plop our asses down on the couch after we eat and watch a movie?"

"Sounds good to me Chuck, plus I'm still a bit tired from last night. I haven't partied like that in a long time. I had a great time and even Casey got the stick out of his ass."

"Don't forget the General she was crazy as hell. For an older woman she's not in bad shape and sure has a lot of good dance moves."

"I know, she's the last person I thought I'd see dancing to today's music and doing it well. Which reminds me, why do the women go naked in the pool area and the men don't?"

"That I can't answer. Before Ellie and I moved in they kept their bottoms on, then Ellie told them it was good to air out their lady bits and stripped off her bottom. That's how it's been ever since. I think there's more to it than that. When she was still with Devon they used to go to nude beaches all the time, so I think she's an exhibitionist," he said with a wink.

"The report I had on you when I got here was way off, it had you labeled as an underachiever working in a Buy More. They made no mention of your being a hacker. You're so much more than that though, you sold a few games and make a ton of money off them. Even though you're not a spy your team is better than most of the ones I know."

"Thank you, you're not the cold hearted bitch your file says you are. My file is correct as far as they know so you did get the information they had. When I was at Stanford, during my senior year, I was hit by a car and was paralyzed from the neck down along with numerous broken bones. One day out of nowhere I could move again." Sarah eyed him speculatively when she heard this and Chuck noticed her look. "I'm serious let me show you." He took her hand and led her back in the house and to a room she hadn't seen yet. He booted up his computer and pulled up his medical records. "Ellie thought it would be a good idea to store our medical records electronically so when we do missions we can take them along." Sarah was shocked when she looked at his record and saw he was telling the truth. "You're a fun loving girl who I happen to like a lot. Now get over here and kiss me." Once again Sarah's knees got week as she went over to Chuck and began making out with him. Hands started moving and their clothes were just about to come off when Riley interrupted them yelling "foods getting cold" into the room.

When the meal finished Chuck, Logan and the General went back into the computer room and got to work. Chuck sat down in front of the computers and began typing like a madman on the keyboards in front of him easily rolling between the computers that served a different purpose. Monitors around the room were displaying lines of coding and Chuck was entering more codes as he went between keyboards. When all the commands were entered the only thing keeping them from going live was the enter command. Chuck said, "General would you like the honors of beginning the take down of Alexi Volkoff?"

"And so it begins," said Beckman with a smile as she depressed the Enter key's one after the other. It took a few minutes until the first Bots programming took affect and data started flowing in. The massive computer system started separating and collating the data based on certain parameters, financial, organization and location. When Chuck was confident the Bots were working he left to find Sarah to pick up where they left off.

"That's it General everything we get will go directly to the NSA after we have gone over it of course," stated Logan.

"Not a problem Logan. I have a feeling you'll want to take action on some of the information we gather. How long do you think it will be before my people can have some of the information? On to the next issue. How is Chuck going to tell Frost where to meet?"

"Based on our past experience I'd say a week. Concerning Frost, it's already been done. When they were chatting with her they told her that their favorite song was 'Winds of Change' by the Scorpions. The second line "Down to Gorky Park" is the meeting place. The first line "I follow the Moskva" tells her which side of the park they want her to enter. Chuck knows where Volkoff's headquarters is so that is the direction they will come from."

"He really is brilliant, isn't he? In all my years of doing this I have never seen an agent with his skills. Using that song was perfect for the situation. How do you think it will play out when he meets his mom?"

"I don't think his mom will be the problem, what happens when they find his dad is."

"Please explain that to me. I thought his reaction would be the same."

"You know how Chuck feels about the CIA and why. He understands why his mom was gone, but he also knows why his dad, or has an idea as to why he left. He's the intersect and you can bet your last dollar his mind has figured out a way to access anything in it whenever he wants, including who built the damn thing. In his mind his dad is a coward because he ran instead of staying and using the resources he had at hand to get his mom back. "

"Logan's right General," Chuck said as he once again entered the room, this time with Sarah. "I figured it out a little while ago actually. I was thinking of you three and wham! Something clicked. The next thing I know, just by thinking about something I can see the information. I looked up Bryce to see what kind of spy he was all his information was there. I didn't need the intersect to find my mom, from the boxes and our hacking there were enough bread crumbs for us to figure it out. That was before the stupid thing ended up in my head, now we have a real advantage against Fulcrum," he explained. "I think we've done enough for tonight and it's time to party."

"Is that all you people do here work and get plastered?" questioned the General as she followed Chuck out of the room towards the pool.

"For me yes, Logan does that as well but he has sex a lot too." Chuck noticed the Generals funny look and drove on, "He sleeps with all five of his girls, sometimes more than one at a time."

"In a few hours Chuck will be adding that to his list as well," Sarah stated very firmly while looking at Chuck and holding his hand.

"You guys need to hang a sign out front that says 'Welcome to Sodom and Gomorrah'" stated Beckman.

"Nah, we're thinking LCE's Hedonistic Hangout," answered Logan. As he cracked his first beer and downed it. Beckman could only shake her head and reach for the Crown Royal.

 **AN:** Chuck and Sarah do finally have sex I don't have to tell you what that entails do I? Didn't think so.


End file.
